I want to do useful work and get paid, without having to report it for taxation, confiscation, and regulation.

Chicago Teachers’ Strike

Thisstoryis interesting. In Chicago, public school teachers are striking. They are demanding a ridiculously high pay increase, 30% over 4 years. They object to a new system for “giving teachers more accountability”.

The salary demand is ridiculous. How many workers got a 30% pay increase over 4 years?

Superficially, you might say “Pay teachers based on standardized tests!” is more accountability. That is merely replacing one bureaucratic rule with another bureaucratic rule. Teachers can “teach for the test”. When I was in 8th grade, my English teacher cheated on a standardized test! He gave us a “practice writing test”. The actual test was exactly the same as the practice test!

“School teacher accountability” is a misleading issue. True accountability would be market competition. As long as State schools are funded via taxation and threat of violence, there will be no accountability. The actual proposal replaces one set of bureaucratic rules with another.

“Charter schools” are another fake reform. “Charter schools” are still funded by taxes and the State. There still is a lot of bureaucratic overhead.

True “public school reform” would be going to a 100% free market system. That isn’t going to happen. A lot of insiders make a lot of money off the corrupt way things are now. They will always block reform.

As long as a service is provided by taxes, there always will be waste and inefficiency. Without the market signal of prices and customers leaving for competitors, it’s impossible to manage a State service efficiently.

In the private sector, the official purpose of a union is to protect workers from greedy employers. In the public sector, who are the workers unionizing against? Private sector unions are unionizing against taxpayers, deciding how much of the stolen tax money they get.

Unions were most effective when they were illegal. Random strikes and slowdowns can be crippling. Now, the union leader is another State bureaucrat protecting his turf. Unionized workers are legally prevented from taking any action, unless they give their employer written advance notice and go through the bureaucratic process first.

State law subsidizes unions. In a “closed shop” state, the union deducts a “representation fee” from each worker’s paycheck, even if he doesn’t join the union. When unionized workers strike, the employer can’t say “You all are fired! I’m hiring replacements!” The State requires employers to hire workers back when the strike ends. That limits the risk of the striking worker, because his job is guaranteed when the strike ends. That also reduces the incentive to hire replacements, because they must be fired when the strike ends.

A pro-State troll says “State schools are free education! That’s wonderful!” Nothing is free. The cost is paid via taxes. People pay for the cost of the education, plus all the waste and inefficiency of the State education bureaucracy. Also, State education is more about teaching people to be complacent slaves. State schools do not teach people to really think independently.

State teachers will never face true accountability, as long as they are funded via taxation/theft. True teacher accountability would be a 100% free market system, where parents directly pay and pick for the school. A pro-State troll might say “Where will parents get the money?”, but taxes would be reduced by an amount greater than the cost of the tuition.

Who are government workers unionizing against? The taxpayers? State law subsides unions. There is the automatic payroll deduction subsidy. Employers can’t fire striking workers and hire permanent replacements.

2 Responses to Chicago Teachers’ Strike

Vote in the upcoming U.S. elections if you want to endorse, approve of, and support a power beyond your control and over which you have no control whatsoever, a power that can

…tax you to any extent it wants to and by any means it chooses to,

…take any amount of your wealth and transfer it to whomever it pleases or use it for any purpose it pleases,

…draft you into a fighting force if it
decides to,

…tell you what to eat,

…control who appears on ballots,

…borrow any amount of money,

…itself decide what is legal for it to do,

…enter warfare with anyone it chooses whenever and wherever it chooses,

…interpret the Constitution as it sees fit,

…regulate any product in any way it chooses,

…regulate commerce no matter how insignificant,

…take property for any use it wants to,

…search you at its pleasure,

…restrict your ability to own weapons,

…restrict your ability to defend yourself,

…make it a crime to own weapons and defend yourself,

…make it a crime to use a wide range of drugs,

…make it a crime to buy many goods or produce them,

…control all communications,

…control all transportation,

…arrest you without warrant,

…spy on you by any means it chooses,

…postpone elections and declare martial law if it chooses,

…hold you in prison without trial,

…kill you,

…in short, pass any law it pleases and enforce it on you and against you.

Vote in the elections if you wish to stand up for, confirm, subscribe to and sustain a power that holds you in its grasp and can hold you totally in its grasp if it so decides.

A vote for either the Democrats or the Republicans is a vote for this power, which is the power of either party and both parties together.

Vote in the elections if you have been brainwashed into thinking your vote makes a difference.

Vote in the elections if you have been brainwashed into thinking a vote for a given party makes a difference.

Vote in the elections if you have been brainwashed into thinking that this is your duty, or that this is a patriotic act.

Vote in the elections if you have been brainwashed into thinking that you have no right to complain unless you vote.

Vote in this election if you think you are voting for the lesser of two evils, rather than thinking you are endorsing evil and have another option, which is not to endorse evil.

Vote in the elections as a statement that you kneel before, acknowledge and accept a power that controls your life, your liberty, your property, and your pursuit of happiness.

Vote in the elections as a sign and confirmation that you place little or no value on your life, liberty, property and pursuit of happiness, and that a power beyond your control may do as it wishes with you.

Vote in the elections if you want to endorse and confirm your own status as a slave who is subject to this power.

Vote in the elections if you want to acknowledge that you are little more than a trained dog whose freedom is limited and controlled by its master.

Politicians claim the power to tax and control you, whether you vote or not. If you don’t vote, they’ll say “If you’re too lazy to vote, that’s your problem.”

People dependent on the State vote in blocs to support their candidate. Unions are one example. Theoretically, if you don’t vote, it’s easier for such groups to influence the election, but voting is a fake choice anyway.

In an honest election, one of the choices on the ballot would always be “I do not consent to the current form of government.”

Voting is a waste of time. It’s a fake choice between insider-screen candidates.

However, if there was a serious libertarian candidate on the ballot, it’s only a small bit of effort to vote and support him. I didn’t waste my time changing my registration from Democratic to Republican so I could vote for Ron Paul in the primary.

It’s better to focus your energy on other tactics than voting and electing less-corrupt candidates. You can’t reform a corrupt system by working within the system. However, if there is a promising candidate on the ballot, it isn’t too much of a loss to vote.